San Diego Architect Graham Downes, highly regarded for the many well-known urban projects he designed, was critically injured Sunday from injuries he sustained in a Friday assault at his Bankers Hill home.

Downes' publicist, Danielle Gano, said Tuesday night that he was being kept on life-support systems pending organ donation.

Downes, 56, has been hospitalized, in critical condition, since early Friday morning after a confrontation with an employee of his architecture firm. When San Diego police officers arrived at Downes’ residence on West Juniper Street near Albatross Street at about 1:10 a.m., they found two men on the ground, homicide Lt. Jorge Duran said. A party was going on at the time at Downes' home, and the men had confronted each other outside, Duran reported.

The employee, Higinio Salgado, 31, was jailed Friday on suspicion of attempted murder.

"To his family and friends, Downes was known as an exciting and adventurous man who did no less than devour life," Gano said in an e-mailed statement. "There were no half-measures in his world and those who knew him socially surely have a memorable story to tell in which he is invariably at the center, but his heart's passion was with the design practice he toiled so hard to create and grow, Graham Downes Architecture."

Known for his work in revitalizing neglected urban areas, Downes established his architectural firm in 1994, and in the years since came to be known for his design work on a number of boutique hotels and restaurants. Among them were Pacific Beach’s Tower 23 hotel and its restaurant and bar, JRDN; Hotel La Jolla’s guestrooms; and the Hard Rock Hotel, The Palomar hotel and Gang Kitchen, all in downtown San Diego.

Most recently, his firm completed a major overhaul of the decades-old Tom Ham’s Lighthouse on Harbor Island and before that, the Bali Hai on Shelter Island.

“He really was a renaissance man, both in his work and in his life,” San Diego restaurateur David Cohn said on Sunday. Cohn's restaurant group had been working with Downes’ firm to help design a $10 million dining venue and event center planned for the eastern end of Harbor Island. "We chose Graham because we knew he could create the iconic project we wanted for Harbor Island.

"As much as Graham loved the city of San Diego, he was also willing to be a critic of city planning when he felt it was necessary."

A native of South Africa who came to San Diego in 1986, Downes was an accomplished rugby player, representing the United States at the 1987 Rugby World Cup.